getting a raisehttp://www.wisebread.com/taxonomy/term/9720/all
en-USCreate Your Own Raisehttp://www.wisebread.com/create-your-own-raise
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<p>If you're one of the many who hasn't gotten a raise since 2007, perhaps you need to create your own raise. (See also: <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/replacing-a-crappy-job">Replacing a Crappy Job</a>)</p>
<p>It's a simple concept &mdash; cutting your expenses by a few percent is effectively the same as boosting your income by a few percent. In fact, it's better, because you'd have to pay taxes on any extra income, while reducing your spending is tax-free. (In fact, reducing your spending often means you pay <em>less</em> tax &mdash; less sales and excise taxes.)</p>
<p>Of course most people have already thought of this and have already cut their spending as much as they figure they can without cutting their standard of living. Most people are wrong.</p>
<p>You can verify that with this simple two-step process.</p>
<h2>1. Track Your Spending</h2>
<p>Unless you've been tracking your spending, you almost certainly have no idea where a big chunk of your spending is going. I can just about guarantee that if you go through the exercise of tracking your spending, you'll discover that 3%, 5%, 7% of your money is leaking away. Maybe it's going for fancy coffee drinks or your bar tab or workday lunches or the office vending machines or groceries that spoil before they get eaten. I don't know &mdash; but unless you're tracking your spending, <em>you don't know either</em>.</p>
<p>I've got a post that's on topic &mdash; <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/track-your-spending-or-not">Track Your Spending. Or Not.</a></p>
<h2>2. Identify Some Economizations</h2>
<p>If you were trying to completely remake your finances, you'd have to look at the top of your spending &mdash; at the big items such as mortgage or rent, car payment, stuff like that. But let's put those aside for a bit. You're just looking to create a raise &mdash; a raise that would likely have been only 3% or 4%, if you'd gotten one.</p>
<p>When all you need to find is 3% or 4%, there's a lot of room at the bottom &mdash; in the small expenses and especially among your little luxuries</p>
<p>If your income has been stagnant for a few years, you probably don't feel like you've got many luxuries any more &mdash; because you haven't added any new ones in a while, and you got used to the old ones long ago.</p>
<p>To that end, I'd like to suggest a little mental trick for identifying your luxuries &mdash; pretend you're going through <em>someone else's budget</em>.</p>
<p>Imagine an acquaintance has come to you for help making a budget. Imagine that they've been living a bit beyond their means. Imagine that, even though you're pretty sure that they don't make any more money than you, you've noticed that they've been buying stuff that <em>you</em> can't afford. Imagine that the whole thing has caught up with them, and they desperately need to economize.</p>
<p>Then look at your notes on where your money's been going and tell your &quot;acquaintance&quot; where they might economize.</p>
<p>Of course, they're no doubt strongly wedded to their luxuries, just like you are to yours, but so what? They need to economize, and you're there to help.</p>
<p>I made a similar suggestion in this post &mdash; <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/on-choosing-and-defending-your-luxuries">On Choosing and Defending Your Luxuries</a>.</p>
<p>Here are a few thoughts on where to look:</p>
<ul>
<li>What little expenses do you pay cash for (or casually swipe a debit card for)? If you could cut just a dollar or two per day, you're instantly saving hundreds of dollars a year.<br />
&nbsp;</li>
<li>What expenses are just old habits? I once got into the habit of having dinner out once a week, because I had a class that kept me from going home at dinnertime. But I continued even after the class ended, because I enjoyed it. I only cut it when I did the math and realized what the expense added up to.<br />
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Especially look at your <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/start-with-recurring-monthly-expenses">recurring expenses</a>. Could you raise a deductible on your insurance? Go to a cheaper plan for your cell phone or internet service? Find a less expensive fitness center? Cut your utility bill by adjusting your thermostat and switching off things you're not using?</li>
</ul>
<p>Unless you've gone through this exercise already this year, I have no doubt you can cobble together a few little cuts that will add up to a 3%, 4%, or even 5% raise.</p>
<h2>Next Year's Raise</h2>
<p>Hopefully the economy will be better next year, and you'll get a real raise. But we've been hoping that for a while now. Just in case it doesn't work out that way, take a step now toward creating next year's raise.</p>
<p>Specifically, go back to those big things that I suggested you postpone taking a look at.</p>
<p>The reason I had you start with the small things is that saving money on the big things (things like housing and transportation) usually requires a long lead time &mdash; but that's okay; we've already taken care of this year. Now you're looking ahead to next year. You <em>have</em> the <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/living-cheaply-for-the-long-term">necessary long lead time</a>.</p>
<p>By looking for economizations among the big things, I'm sure you can create your next year's raise.</p>
<br /><div id="custom_wisebread_footer"><div id="rss_tagline">This article is from <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/philip-brewer">Philip Brewer</a> of <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/create-your-own-raise">Wise Bread</a>, an award-winning personal finance and <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/credit-cards">credit card comparison</a> website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:</div><div class="view view-similarterms view-id-similarterms view-display-id-block_2 view-dom-id-3">
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</div> </div><br/></br>Personal FinanceBudgetinggetting a raisereducing expensestracking spendingTue, 05 Jun 2012 10:00:12 +0000Philip Brewer932971 at http://www.wisebread.comWomen Are Responsible For Inequalities in the Workplacehttp://www.wisebread.com/women-are-responsible-for-inequalities-in-the-workplace
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<p class="MsoPlainText">It’s not news that women tend to hit glass ceilings in the workplace far sooner than men do. It’s also not news that women tend to earn less money than their male counterparts in exactly the same positions. </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Is it possible though, women are actually partially responsible for these inequalities? Recent studies say yes. </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">U.S. behavioral scientist and author Shannon L. Goodson has studied and compared tens of thousands of men and women from 34 different countries to figure out what is going on. She discovered that women are less likely to project themselves professionally (regardless of country or culture). </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Upon first blush, this shouldn’t be so bad; aren’t we taught that modesty is more attractive than blatant egotism? Isn’t it unladylike to be too forward? </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">But when we live in a world where (as Goodson confirmed) self-promotion is key to getting bigger salaries and better positions, it seems that feminine modesty is simply detrimental. </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Here are some ways you can start to actively promote yourself without being looked upon as the “office bitch”:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Draw attention to your contributions</strong>, especially if they go above and beyond the original task assigned.</li>
<li><strong>If you are proud of something you believe you do well, make sure the right people know about it</strong>. If they know that you enjoy a particular task or have a knack with it, you may find your job shifting to encompass more of it, utilizing your talents better and giving you more job satisfaction.</li>
<li><strong>Participate in social and professional networking events</strong>, and <a href="/seven-ways-to-be-the-life-of-every-party" target="_blank">be sure to mingle</a>.<span> </span></li>
<li>If a task takes you less than the allotted time, be sure to bring it to your boss’s attention. </li>
<li><strong>Make suggestions for how your skills might be better utilized</strong> if you feel you aren’t working up to your capabilities. Warning: don’t let your boss pile more work on…indicate that these suggestions are for future improvement of the company, and that these responsibilities warrant a new position or restructuring of your current position. </li>
<li><strong>Ask for a raise</strong> if you feel you deserve it! The worst anybody can say is “no”. </li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Goodson’s studies reveal another possibly scarier fact: <em>female managers are not as supportive and encouraging of other women</em> as you may think. Those women who have made a leap to management and are on the fast track may actually sabotage the careers of other women under them. So if you are an employee working underneath one of these managers, be sure not to look to them for that maternal encouragement you may expect – in fact, watching your back may be sadly necessary. I have personal experience in this area; by expecting the woman across the desk from me to be kind and nurturing, I have botched interviews, become agitated in meetings, and even been bitten by office politics in unlikely ways. </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In many cases you can overcome workplace inequalities without having to change your behavior. Instead, a simple shift in attitude will do:</p>
<ul>
<li>Don’t expend energy worrying about outcomes…<strong>focus on the job, and show off the results in the end</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>Eliminate stage fright from your vocabulary</strong>. Join <a href="http://www.toastmasters.org/" target="_blank">Toastmasters</a> if you need to become more comfortable presenting in front of groups - it&#39;s fun and incredibly helpful. (And it&#39;s more of that social networking I was talking about - you just may meet your next manager there).</li>
<li><strong>Don’t worry about being “intrusive”</strong> in opening up lines of communication with others (especially managers higher than you). </li>
<li><strong>Don’t be intimidated.</strong> Women are more likely than men to be intimidated by wealthy people, and those in powerful positions. Remember – they are just people too. </li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">In this day and age, hard work alone is not enough to succeed and flourish in the workplace. Don’t be a martyr – get out there and self-promote! Only you can be your biggest cheerleader – nobody else will do it for you. </p>
<br /><div id="custom_wisebread_footer"><div id="rss_tagline">This article is from <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/nora-dunn">Nora Dunn</a> of <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/women-are-responsible-for-inequalities-in-the-workplace">Wise Bread</a>, an award-winning personal finance and <a href="http://www.wisebread.com/credit-cards">credit card comparison</a> website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:</div><div class="view view-similarterms view-id-similarterms view-display-id-block_2 view-dom-id-1">
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</div> </div><br/></br>Career and Incomefemale salariesgetting a raiseglass ceilingself promotionwomen in the workplaceworkplace inequalitiesThu, 04 Sep 2008 04:26:03 +0000Nora Dunn2398 at http://www.wisebread.com